Report: Wallops spaceport needs state $$

Another week, another report on Virginia’s Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport.

This one, courtesy of Herndon-based Center for Innovative Technology, draws similar conclusions as a report issued last month by Gov. Bob McDonnell’s office. Both say that the spaceport, which abuts NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility on the Eastern Shore, is growing rapidly and could grow even more because NASA is investing in commercial spaceflight.

The center’s report differs in that it goes straight for the jugular — in this case, the shrinking coffers of Virginia’s government.

“Continued operations of the [Virginia Commercial Spaceflight] Authority and Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport are contingent upon increased annual financial support from the Commonwealth,” says the first of several recommendations in the report that call for “immediate attention.”

The center, a state-chartered nonprofit that receives public and private funding, also goes out of its way to stress the importance of Virginia’s relationship with Orbital Sciences Corp. The Dulles-based aerospace company, with a $1.9 billion NASA contract to resupply the International Space Station, is easily the spaceport’s biggest customer.

The report from McDonnell’s office, completed by an outside consulting firm, said while the relationship with Orbital is paramount, Virginia needs to limit Orbital’s influence to attract other aerospace companies. It stated that Orbital should no longer have a voting presence on the authority’s board of directors.

McDonnell had let Orbital’s representation on the board slip to one member. That changed Friday when he appointed to the board Robert T. “Bob” Richards, vice president of Orbital’s human spaceflight systems’ advanced programs group.

It’ll be interesting to see if McDonnell, who prides himself on small government, ponies up the money to expand the authority when he releases a two-year state budget this month. It’ll also be interesting to see how the newly Republican-controlled General Assembly reacts.

Lawmakers may fight to add money, arguing that investing in the spaceport will create good-paying jobs. Or they could go the other way and say that private industry, not government, should dictate what happens at the spaceport.